[Locke]

Its almost that time of year again and theres some things you should know as you're preparing your information and need advice or documents from CRA:

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires all taxpayers to declare their income voluntarily and honestly. The sanctions for not doing so are serious for taxpayers. However, the Agency has an equal obligation to provide taxpayers with complete, accurate, clear, and timely information. The evidence is overwhelming: The CRA is falling down in the performance of its public mandate. The victims of its failure are low and middle-income taxpayers who cannot afford expensive professional advice and turn to the agency for their information.

The CRA processes about 30 million tax returns annually, and operates nine call centres to give individuals and businesses information about their taxes, credits, and benefits. The online services and telephone call centres are the primary ways for the public to obtain tax information. However, as the Auditor General’s Report to Parliament reveals, the CRA blocks more than half of the calls that it receives (about 29 million out of 53.5 million) from reaching either a tax agent or the automated self-service system. Instead, callers receive either a busy signal, or a message to go to a website, or call back later.

Last year, the CRA answered only 36 per cent of the calls that it received. The remaining 64 per cent of calls were either blocked, or directed to an automated self-service system. By blocking taxpayer calls, the CRA could report that it connected with about 90 per cent of calls from the public. This is the tantamount to a misrepresentation in a tax return. Indeed, if the CRA blocked even more calls from taxpayers, it could improve its statistical performance rating to 100 per cent.

Even more alarming, when the CRA did respond to taxpayer calls, it gave taxpayers the wrong answer almost 30 per cent of the time. Taxpayers who acted on the erroneous information would file incorrect tax returns, and consequently would face tax assessments, interest charges, and, possibly, penalties. Under the law, a taxpayer is responsible for any inaccuracies in his or her tax return, even if the error is due to incorrect information provided by CRA agents. Thus, the burden of fighting the assessment is on the taxpayer, who must pay the costs of litigation, interest charges, penalties.

Far from abiding by the law, the CRA is derelict in the performance of its public duties to taxpayers, and endangers the integrity and reputation of Canada’s tax system. Taxpayers have a duty to file their returns honestly, and with integrity. However, they have a corresponding right to timely and accurate information from the CRA in the administration of the tax system.

http://business.financialpost.com/le...bill-of-rights

Its going to be a fun Tax Season.